6 Underrated Content Marketing Assets For B2B SEO

One of the biggest obstacles to B2B search engine optimization is developing new content marketing assets for targeting important keywords and acquiring link assets. While our organization has seen this in client relationships throughout the years, this degree of difficulty was further supported by industry peers in the 2012 MarketingSherpa Search Engine Marketing Report.

Even though there are many excellent research tools available for finding new content marketing ideas, sometimes the best resources are right under the B2B marketer’s nose. Here are six underrated content marketing assets and how they can be leveraged more effectively for B2B SEO.

Company Overview Pages

I have often seen B2B marketers obsess over home page messaging but leave the company overview page (and section) nearly bare, outside of basic marketing material. When coordinating link outreach, one of the first places I would assume an interested site owner would review would be the About Page of an organization. Bottom-line, they want to know whether the asset they will link to comes from a reputable source.

In addition to important company information and general marketing messaging, consider adding the following assets to a company overview page:

References to organizations, memberships, and industry affiliations

Links to social media assets and recent updates from those assets

Video assets such as executive interviews and product demonstrations

Links to publications and associated author information about management

Kissmetrics has a great post highlighting information frequently found and illustrated in trustworthy websites.

Resources Overview Pages

The resources overview page is another place too often underutilized in the link outreach message. When sending out a message to a prospective link partner, I almost always include a reference to the resources overview page, since it can be a great destination for site owners to find additional content that may be of value for their audiences.

Some of the key functionality that can make a Resources overview page standout:

A prominent section highlighting the most recently created and/or updated resources

Images and even video designed to break-up text and catch the visitor’s eye

Social media references, for both organizational profiles and key management and social media marketing personnel

Resources Archives

Don’t forget to dive into the Resources Archives bylines used in link building submissions to industry publications.

I’ve often found good white papers can be broken out into multiple blog posts. Setting up a short interview with product marketing teams on a semi-regular basis is usually all it takes to refresh and update concepts used in older white paper material.

Sales & Business Development Collateral

I have written previously about the need for better alignment between sales, marketing, and B2B SEO professionals, when focused on lead generation initiatives. Sales and marketing teams spend a tremendous amount of time in developing professional sales collateral for new business development. This often includes:

Sales presentations

Marketing-specific cut sheets, visualizations, and product snapshots

Video collateral

This collateral can be a boon for B2B SEO’s looking for adaptable content to use in blog posts, SEO landing pages, and distribution across social media platforms. The key is being proactive about identifying the resources and creative in adapting them for online marketing needs.

In one example, we had a client’s executive team participating in a series of Round Table events in conjunction with an organization they were members of. After some initial investigation, we were able to use portions of the content for our client’s SEO initiatives, including:

Integrating video interviews with the CEO in YouTube

A three part blog post series with additional perspective of the event from Product Management

Customer Support Forums & Discussions

Customer support can be a great resource for finding content ideas. Interview customer service teams for commonly asked questions and issues they field during calls with customers. The answers they provide can become blog posts, articles, and additional content assets for the website.

One of our clients that develops an enterprise software solution has been developing “technology tips” based on customer service queries for the past two years. When reviewing analytics last quarter, we realized these content marketing assets contributed to 5% of the overall content viewed and 20% of the search queries received.

More importantly, these resources are often discussed and receive feedback during regular account management calls and meetings, which gets the ball rolling for new technology tip ideas and suggestions.

The 404 Error Page

Finally, while there may be nothing more annoying that landing on a broken webpage, a little creativity in the error message can go a long way to alleviating frustration and bring the visitor back to the site. While we typically recommend a clear error message with links to core navigational elements and social media profiles, humor and creative expression are often welcome too. At the least, maybe you’ll get a link in one of these collections for your efforts.

What content marketing opportunities have you found underutilized for B2B SEO in past experiences? I would love to read your perspective and ideas via comments below.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Derek Edmond is a Managing Partner for KoMarketing, a B2B online marketing agency specializing in search, social media, and content marketing. With over 10 years experience, Derek has worked with a range of organizations from the Fortune 500 to venture-backed startups and small businesses.